The concept of fat contained within the myocardium, has
recently received attention because of its potential role in diabetic
myocardial disease, obesity, and HIV infected individuals. Measurements of
myocardial triglycerides in humans have been accessed using proton MR
spectroscopy (1H MRS). We studied whether the dual-echo Dixon MRI could
quantify the fatty content of the myocardium on normal volunteers. The bias
including T1, T2*, and noise that confound the calculation of the fat fraction
were carefully corrected. The fraction of fat was also quantified directly with
1H MRS as an independent method.